In recent years, as the problem of global warming has grown more serious, efforts are being made to expand the use of natural energy sources (renewable energy sources) such as sunlight, wind power, water power, and geothermal energy as energy sources to replace fossil fuels such as petroleum and natural gas. Such natural energy is at present being converted almost entirely into energy in electrical forms, but electricity is unsuited to storage in large amounts, and transport losses are also large. Hence in recent years the possibility is being studied of employing natural energy sources to produce and effectively use hydrogen, which can be stored in large amounts and transported over long distances, as hydrogen energy.
In addition to the merits of enabling storage and transport, hydrogen is present in inexhaustible amounts on the earth in the form of water and various compounds, and provides large amounts of power as energy used in rocket fuel and the like. Moreover, even when combusted, only water is generated upon reaction with oxygen in air, so that hydrogen is a clean energy source that does not entail emission of carbon dioxide or atmospheric pollutants, among other advantages.
Moreover, because there are quantitative limits to natural energy sources within Japan, the future possibilities of using natural energy sources within Japan to produce large quantities of hydrogen, and of storing and transporting same to resolve energy problems within Japan, are being studied.
Given this background, in conjunction with expansion of the use of hydrogen, establishment of technology to store and transport hydrogen is an urgent matter, and one matter related thereto is the development of a fluid handling device (loading arm) for handling liquid hydrogen that has been transported.